As a church family, we are spending this holiday season focusing on mastering the fine art of ENJOYING GOD. I call it an “art” because adoring Christ, like loving your spouse, is more of an art than a science. We are forced to move beyond instructions and rituals to a personal encounter our risen Lord. Relationships are highly resistant to rituals and formulas. Our relationship with Jesus demands we move beyond religious forms to the actual enjoyment of His Person.

This is what adoration is all about. To adore is to love in the highest degree; to regard with the utmost esteem, affection and respect.

The word adore comes from a Latin word meaning “to carry to one’s mouth in order to kiss one’s hand.” It conjures the medieval image of a servant kneeling before royalty while holding the hand of his king or queen as he reverently bow’s to kiss it.

We bow because we are approaching a sovereign. The one we honor possesses ultimate authority. The splendor and majesty of our surroundings evokes a breathtaking sense of awe and wonder. Your stomach is filled with butterflies as a strange mixture of fear and excitement swirl within.

As you bow to kiss His hand, a smile explodes across your grateful face! You love your King! You are grateful for His loving care. You are stunned and humbled by the unspeakable privilege of calling him your friend.

In adoration we see a glimpse of what true worship is all about; majesty combined with intimacy, awe mixed with humility, thankfulness joining hands with esteem, and reverential fear comingled with affectionate love.

As we gather with family and friends for another Thanksgiving holiday celebration, pause to offer God the only gift that we have to offer – our adoration! Let Him know how much joy He brings to your life!

Let us come to him with thanksgiving.
Let us sing psalms of praise to him.
3 For the LORD is a great God,
a great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:2-3, NLT

Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.
Nehemiah 4:17, NKJV

Like Nehemiah, our job as pastors involves building – the building of people. Pastors love people. We want to see men come to know Christ as Savior. We want to see hearts healed, marriages restored and families thriving. That’s why much of our daily routine is characterized by “bricks and mortar.” Like Nehemiah, we have a clear mandate to rebuild the lives of the people under our care.

But we can also learn another valuable lesson from our friend, Nehemiah. When his mission came under attack (4:7-8), he didn’t continue with business as usual. He shifted his strategy. While he continued with a brick in one hand, he added a sword in the other hand. When their lives and liberties were under assault, they grabbed a weapon and protected themselves. You see, swords are not for building; they are for killing. After all, what good is your church or family if you no longer possess the liberty to enjoy them?

There is hardly a day that passes where we read a headline of yet another trampling of our religious liberties. Businessmen and women are being fined for exercising their faith in public. Pastors are being threatened with fines and even imprisonment for declaring God’s truth about the moral issues of our day. Yet in the face of the most aggressive assault on our religious liberties in our lifetimes, the typical pastor is still making bricks and building walls when he should be looking for his sword.

We have been called to pick up “the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17) and to STAND against every ungodly thought or political agenda that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5). While we love people, we must hate the ungodly ideas that work to enslave and destroy people.

This is why I am inviting pastors and the people they love and lead to join us this Saturday, November 22 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm on the south steps of the Statehouse in downtown Indianapolis for and event we are calling The Stand. We will be making a public and prophetic declaration of our unyielding and uncompromising commitment to stand for the sanctity of life, the dignity of marriage and the gift of religious liberty.

It’s time to find your sword before your freedoms are gone.

For more information, go to:

http://www.hoosierfamily.org/pastors-events